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And these are the finished socks with the stretchy cast on. Well, one of them anyway… the other one does match, honestly. I just forgot to take the photo of them both together!

The yarn is Lana Grossa Cotton Maya, 45% cotton, 42% wool, 13% nylon. Knitted from the top down, with a band heel and a more gently rounded toe shape.

I think I understand this sock knitting addiction now. The quest is not to knit socks, but to knit the PERFECT socks. I haven’t yet succeeded, and I’m not sure I want to. It’s much more fun trying out the different techniques for the heels and toes. It’s even better when the yarn is interesting in its own right. This sock fits quite nicely over the heel, and the toe is almost right. I have a few ideas on how to improve the fit of the toe, I may try a round (as opposed to a standard) toe shape next time.

This was adapted from a free Regia leaflet, called “Sock Pattern & How-to-knit Guide”. The instructions for the cast on in the leaflet made no sense to me at all. For example, the complete instructions for Round 2 read “*slip the K stitch purlwise yarn at front of work rep from *” – exactly like that, no punctuation or anything. As far as I can see, all it’s telling you to do is slip all the stitches in the round, so basically you’re doing absolutely nothing apart from moving stitches from one needle to another. So here we go with my interpretation which actually works (and, I hope, makes sense!).

Stretchy Rib Cast on for Top Down Socks

Cast on HALF the number of stitches required for the cuff using a contrasting waste yarn. My sock pattern needed 64 stitches altogether, so I cast on 32 stitches.

Now continue with your sock yarn.

Round 1: *Knit 1, yarn over needle. Repeat from * arranging knit stitches and made stitches (the yarn overs) across your 3 or 4 double pointed needles.

Round 2: *Yarn at back, slip the knit stitch purlwise. Yarn at front, purl the made stitch. Repeat from * making sure you include the very last made stitch at the end of the round.

Round 3: *Yarn at back, knit 1. Yarn at front, slip purl stitch purlwise. Continue from * to end of round

Round 4: * Yarn at back, slip knit stitch purlwise. Yarn at front, purl 1. Continue from * to the end of the round.

Now continue with normal knit 1 purl 1, or any other rib that you prefer . Remove the waste yarn.

When I first figured this out, I really didn’t believe that it would work. I was convinced that when I removed the waste yarn I would be left with open stitches. So, I knitted just 2 rounds of normal ribbing after the 4 cast on rounds, then removed the waste – see the picture above. If you try my version you might like to do the same, just in case…. far better to undo a few rounds than knit a complete sock with a wrecked cast on edge!

And here’s the yarn I’m using, Lana Grossa Maya Cotton which is 45% cotton, 42% wool, 13% nylon.

I called these Fruit Gum Socks because the yarn reminded me of Rowntree’s Fruit Gums! It’s Regia Bamboo 4 ply, colour “Afrika”, 45% bamboo, 40% wool, 15% nylon.

The yarn has an almost translucent look to it, and is definitely in fruit gum colours – yellow, orange, green, red and purple.

I expected it to be scratchy (the bamboo!) but it’s really soft and silky, and very easy to knit with.

They were knitted toe up, with short rowed wrapped toes and heels. They’re absolutely plain with no patterning, and finished with 25 rows of knit 2, purl 2 rib.

I used a very stretchy cast off which is extremely easy to do. Knit the first two stitches and pass the first stitch over the second as normal. Return the second stitch to the left needle and knit it once more, then knit another stitch. Pass the first stitch over the second, then return the second stitch to the left needle and knit it again….. and so on until the end.

The short row wrapped heel – I’m definitely getting better at this!

UPDATE

I think I probably should have called these Ribena Socks instead of Fruit Gum Socks! Hand washed in warm water with a squirt of shampoo, they turned the water a lovely shade of deep purple. Even after several rinses, the water was still very purple. The ball band says this yarn is machine washable – well maybe it is, but I wouldn’t want to risk putting these socks into the machine with anything else.

If you search Google for free sock knitting patterns, you’ll find there are literally thousands of them out there, mostly from knitters in the USA. There is one abbreviation I have come across in a large number of these patterns, and that is “SSK”, which apparently stands for “Slip, Slip, Knit”.

That really didn’t mean anything to me, and probably doesn’t mean anything to the average British knitter either. So what is it? It’s the equivalent of the standard, “K2tog tbl” or “knit 2 together through the back of the loops”.

So why “Slip, Slip, Knit”? Well, apparently you slip one stitch knitwise, the next stitch purlwise, you insert the left needle in the front of the loops of the slipped stitches on the right needle and knit them all together. Effectively you’re still knitting through the backs of the loops, but you’re coming at it from a different direction. It does look a little different to the plain K2tog tbl as the stitches lie flatter, and they more closely resemble a normal “knit 2 together” in reverse.

I found an unbranded cone of double knit weight (6 ply) wool blend (80% wool, 20% other fibres) in my machine knitting stash, that just told me it was a pair of men’s boot socks. It’s very slightly tweedy, and a light sludgey khaki greyish sort of green. There’s no other way to describe the colour really!

It wasn’t particularly pleasant to knit with, as it had been spun in oil. It looked and felt a bit like a rough carpet when knitted – but it all came out in the wash. A quick swish around in some warm water and Fairy Liquid, and all the oil was removed, leaving a nice soft woolly sock.

It was very quick to knit, just 56 stitches wide. The top rib hasn’t pulled in – that was deliberate (honest!). I decreased several stitches on the first plain round just so that the sock would be straight, and to give some extra room around the top.

Cast on edge

I used a tubular cast on for this sock. The best instructions I’ve found for a tubular cast on are at “Amelia’s” site; a step by step tutorial, complete with pictures. The tubular cast on is extremely neat, and quite firm. It’s just stretchy enough for the top of a sock, and will hold its shape without sagging.

The Heel

Again, a Sherman Heel. Do you notice any difference between this heel and the other Sherman Heel – the one in the Zebedee Socks? Well, this time I did it correctly! It dawned on me that I was picking up the WRONG LOOP on the Zebedee Socks, no wonder my heel shaping had a row of little holes.